Linguistic Competence: An Introduction

What a linguist means by grammar — Another way to think about linguistic competence: mental representation of language or ‘mental grammar’ ¡ And now we’ve come back to our original question: linguistic competence/mental grammar is what you “know” about language! ¡ And this is what we want to lea...

What a linguist means by grammar — Another way to think about linguistic competence: mental representation of language or ‘mental grammar’ ¡ And now we’ve come back to our original question: linguistic competence/mental grammar is what you “know” about language! ¡ And this is what we want to learn about. — So how do linguists go about discovering the properties of the mental grammar? What a linguist means by grammar — Linguists take a scientific, empirical approach: e.g. what sound sequences and sentences do native speakers allow? — This allows us to determine what is possible in a language and what isn’t. — Notice that it is the speakers who generate the data, not grammar/style books! Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Grammar — Descriptive Grammar: linguist’s description of the mental grammar (what speakers know) ¡ What the speaker’s rules actually are. ¡ It is a description of what can actually be said. ¡ We will focus on studying descriptive grammar in this class Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Grammar — Prescriptive Grammar: ‘rules’ of grammar (which for English are often based on Latin) dictated by style/ grammar book ‘authorities’ on language ¡ What a speaker’s rules should be according to these ‘authorities’ ¡ These rules may generate sentences that you would not often hear in the real world.